Man says he found $150K in his garden: 'We have enough problems, now we got another'

August 31, 2011|By Julie Unruh | WGN-TV

Wayne Sabaj, an unemployed carpenter who lives in unincorporated McHenry County, went out to his garden to find some broccoli to go with his grilled beef for dinner.

There he found greens of a different sort Monday. Lying in the garden among the peppers was a duffel bag filled with $20 bills—lots of them.

He went inside to tell his father of his discovery. “I told him, we have enough problems, now we got another problem. Look what I found in the garden,” he recalled. “What are we going to do with all this money?”

He contemplated his position for about a half hour, then--fearing that the money might have come from a bank robbery and someone might come back looking for it—he called the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.

When officers arrived at his home nearJohnsburg, Sabaj led them back to the garden to show them where he had found the money-laden bag. There, they spotted a second one.

In all, Sabaj, 49, said the two bags contained $150,000.

“It wasn’t my money,” he told WGN-TV. “What am I going to do? I don’t know where it came from. With my luck it came from a bank robbery, and I’d be charged with bank robbery.”

Authorities are mystified. McHenry County Undersheriff Andrew Zinke told the Northwest Herald that no residential or commercial burglaries have been reported, and police are processing the bags for fingerprints and other evidence. Zinke said the bags didn't appear to have been buried or been there for any long period of time.

On Tuesday, in the place where the bags had been, was a McHenry County sheriff’s card with a phone number and the handwritten message: “Please Call.”

If the owner—a legitimate one—is not found police will assist Sabaj in determining if he can keep the cash.